Said Seyam

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Said Seyam (1959 - ) (Arabic: سعيد صيام‎, also spelled Saeed or Sayed) is the Interior Minister of the Palestinian government of March 2006. Seyam was the former commander of Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Khan Yunis. He represented Hamas as member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Israel identified Seyam as the top leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Khan Yunis, but Hamas only identified him as the leader of the group's fighters in the al-Almal neighborhood of the city; the commander of the overall area was Muhammad al-Sanwar - as revealed by the Brigades on September 3, 2005.

[edit] Membership with Hamas

Seyam joined Hamas in 1987 and was one of the founding members of its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was imprisoned by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on two occasions - in 1991 and 1993 - but each time was released before serving his full sentence. Form 1994 to 2000, Seyam served in the Palestinian National Authority's Preventive Security Service, but was still active within Hamas. He resigned from his post shortly after the eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada.

Seyam was reported by Hamas as one of the pioneer of mortar and Qassam rocket attacks on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which caused them to be virtually besieged from 2001 to their evacuation by Israel in September 2005. According to his fighters, Seyam was injured three times during that period, although the cause of these injuries were not disclosed. He also evaded at least one assassination attempt by the IDF in late 2004.

During the al-Aqsa Intifada, Seyam planned several operations against Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip and in Israeli settlements, in addition to fighting the IDF during numerous incursions in Khan Yunis. Hamas credited him for the intelligence gathering and operational supervision of an infiltration by al-Qassam fighter Ismael Breis in the Rafah Yam settlement which killed two civilians on November 6, 2002. He was also identified as the planner of an operation against the IDF post of Orphan - in the settlement block of Gush Katif - in which a tunnel filled with explosives caused extensive damage to military installation and killed one soldier on June 27, 2004. In addition, Seyam oversaw many mortar and Qassam rocket shelling on various Israeli settlements. His responsibility for any lethal attack was not clearly established. In addition to Israelis killed, Seyam allegedly was involved in the killings of a Thai, a Chinese, and two Palestinian workers around greenhouses in the southern Gaza Strip.